Saturday, December 15, 2007

Tears and cheers seal "unthinkable" climate deal

With a last-minute intervention from the top man at the UN, another from the president of Indonesia, booing, hissing, tears and even a call for the US to "get out of the way", a global climate deal was struck today in Bali. The conclusion to the high-level climate summit would have been unthinkable one year ago and as extraordinary as the process which led to it.

And although it is not quite as strong as many had hoped, this is an unprecedented agreement. For the first time, developing nations and crucially the United States have accepted to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

At 3am on Saturday morning ministers adjourned for the night with instructions to return at 8am. By noon and for the nth time this week they were once more at deadlock.

Around noon, the President of Indonesia and then the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon intervened to tell nations to get on with it, urge them to be flexible, and remember that the world was watching them.

?I know most of you are exhausted from lack of sleep. I come before you very reluctantly. Frankly I am disappointed at the level of progress,? said Ki-Moon ? harsh words, coming from a diplomat of his stature. They had an effect and were greeted with a standing ovation. As nation after nation took the floor, each expressed their willingness to be flexible and accept the latest draft.

And then came the turn of the US. ?We are not prepared to accept this formulation.? A stunned silence was followed by a crescendo of boos and hisses.

But nations continued to accept the draft until Kevin Conrad, representative from Papua New Guinea, put in words what no-one dared say:

?There is an old saying if you are not going to lead you should get out of the way and so I say to the United States: ?We ask for your leadership but if you are not going to lead, leave it to us. Get out of the way.??

?We have listened very closely to many of our colleagues,? replied Paula Dobriansky, chief US negotiator and, after a few more of the dialectic detours which the US delegation has become known for, ?we will go forward and join the consensus?.

And so the deal is done.

As I explained earlier, it is not as strong as many would have liked. But there is no doubt that this is unprecedented. For the first time, developed and developing nations have both agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Until now, and under the Kyoto Protocol, only rich nations who at present are largely responsible for the higher concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, were bound by emissions caps.

NGOs concede that the agreement is without precedent, but are disappointed. ?People in the world wanted more, they wanted targets? and the agreement is ?diluted?, declared Climate Action Network, a coalition of environmental pressure groups which includes Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Meanwhile, the EU is very pleased, Hillary Benn environment secretary for the UK says what we have today would have been unthinkable a year ago and James Connaughton, George W. Bush?s chief advisor on climate, says the US did not back down and was prepared to work, and did work, in collaboration with other nations.

But many here agree with the head of the Pakistani delegation when he regretted that none of us have had enough time ?to get out and explore the beaches.?

US agrees global climate deal amid boos

Having being booed by representatives of over 150 countries and countless NGOs and observers, the government of the United States finally conceded to a global consensus on climate change at 14.20 local time on Saturday on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The document is now agreed. It lays out a roadmap for negotiations on a future climate change agreement. This agreement is scheduled for 2009 and should pick up where the Kyoto Protocol leaves off, in 2012.

The document does not make mention of specific targets for the degree to which greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced. It does, however, contain a footnote which refers to the 2007 findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This makes it a weaker document than what the European Union was still insisting was necessary just a few days ago.

Yet the EU commissioner for the environment Stavros Dimas told New Scientist this morning that the text was a "breakthrough" and that "with or without numbers we have a strong pathway which in two years will lead to an agreement which we hope will be effective in the fight against climate change".